Numbers 16:41-50

Is death everywhere in these chapters? Death through rebellion! Paul speaks of this one in I Corinthians 10:10 as complaining or murmuring.

The impudence of the Israelites in this incident is stunning. They complain that Moses and Aaron killed Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their families, as if God was not even involved. They totally neglected to mention that God had done this, that it was His power. “Oh yeah, Moses, he’s so powerful. He can make a huge earthquake and the ground opened up.” Poor Aaron, he just got pulled in because he was Moses’ brother, I guess. Did they do a thing with the staff and the miracle went through Aaron or something? I do not know.

But I find it really impudent that they fail to mention God at all. What they were, in reality, doing, is questioning God’s righteous judgment of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and then exacerbating the situation by ignoring Him altogether. They were trying to put it all on Moses and Aaron. It obviously showed that it was not enough for God to kill Korah, Dathan, Abiram and their families, there was still deep rebellion in the children of Israel beyond Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And so they provoke Him again to anger.

It is very interesting here that it says that He sent a destroyer. It is like the plague of the firstborn (maybe, I do not know). But He sent a destroyer, an angel of death, with a plague killing them just like that. Fourteen thousand seven hundred died in just the space of a few minutes, the time it took for Moses to tell Aaron to get the censer, put some fire on it, and start running through the camp to somehow stop this by making atonement for them. God was hot in anger because this was a provocation He would not stand.

Numbers 16:46

There is an interesting thing in this phrase in verse 42: "They looked toward the tabernacle." The way that is written in the Hebrew it indicates an intention; not just that they turned their heads and looked, because God is reporting to us that these people were getting ready to charge, invade, take over the Tabernacle. And that is when "Whoosh!" the glory of the Lord appeared, and they must have had a momentary fright that turned their stomachs inside out, because they knew that the day before when the glory of the Lord appeared before the people that something terrible was about to occur. Well, Moses did the job of a mediator, and he and Aaron fell down on their faces and began appealing to God, "Please don't do this!" So they were following through with their responsibilities.

Here comes fire, the altar, and censers again. This whole situation turns on people's attitude. The censers and the fire has very much to do with coming to understand what was going on here.

I want you to remember that this is an old man doing this. Moses was 80 when they went into the wilderness. Aaron was 3 years older than Moses, so he is over 85 when this took place.

Aaron, at the age of 85, ran into the midst of this hell that was taking place. People were dying left and right from some kind of a very fast-working plague that God put on them. I do not know what it was. It gives the indication of some kind of a disease invading these people's bodies and tearing them apart in very short order. I guess that goes to show how much better shape they were at 85 than we are today at 68.

Numbers 16:46-47

Here comes fire, the altar, and censers again. This whole situation turns on people's attitude. The censers and the fire has very much to do with coming to understand what was going on here.

I want you to remember that this is an old man doing this. Moses was 80 when they went into the wilderness. Aaron was 3 years older than Moses, so he is over 85 when this took place.

Aaron, at the age of 85, ran into the midst of this hell that was taking place. People were dying left and right from some kind of a very fast-working plague that God put on them. I do not know what it was. It gives the indication of some kind of a disease invading these people's bodies and tearing them apart in very short order. I guess that goes to show how much better shape they were at 85 than we are today at 68.

Numbers 16:46

This is at least the second time He has said this. "I've had it past here now. These people need to be snuffed out. They're not worth it." And then Moses and Aaron did the falling on the faces bit again. They were doing quite a lot a that these last two days. God was not happy.

Moses did not even need to get up and look around to see that God was acting on what He had just said, that He was going to wipe them all out.

Numbers 16:43-48

This time Aaron redeemed himself, and he rose to the occasion. He stood in the gap, and he became a wall of protection for the great bulk of the people at that time.